During the hiring freeze, he said, some critical positions were filled. For example, the Graduate School of Business hired a dean.

"While we did not encourage hiring, we had to do some hiring to continue teaching classes," said Judith Blucker, FIU executive vice provost for the academic budget & personnel.

The State of Florida allocated about $13 million for FIU’s 2002-03 budget after the school lost $11 million through state cuts during the 2001-02 fiscal year, which ended June 30, Ms. Blucker said.

The operating budget this year jumped to $244 million from last year’s reduced $208 million budget, Mr. Tinder said.

The university’s operating budget last year was made up of $139 million from state general revenue funds, $10 million from the Florida Lottery and $68 million from student fees, he said.

A raise in college credit fees starting this fall will also boost revenues, Mr. Tinder said. With undergraduate fees going up 5%, graduate fees jumping 10% and international student fees increasing 22%, university officials project to collect $6 million more, compared to last year.

The state’s new allocation includes more than $2 million to pay for a legislature-approved salary increase for faculty and staff, which total about 3,000 full-time, and $2 million for the newly created school of law, Ms. Blucker said.

While FIU is getting $13 million back, she said, not much of that will go back to the areas from which the $11 million was taken. She said some of FIU’s 70 centers and institutions, such as the Institute for Asian Studies or Center for Aging, saw up to a 25% reduction in funds in ’02 and have hardly received back any funds. She said support services such as the library, labs and computer services saw an 8% cut last year. Teaching and research was the least affected with a 4% cut.

FIU administrators, Ms. Blucker said, have plans to hire soon because the number of registered students has increased.